Spatial navigation and memory rely on neural systems that encode places, distances, and directions in relation to the external world or relative to the navigating organism. Place, grid, and head-direction cells form key units of world-referenced, allocentric cognitive maps, but the neural basis of self-centered, egocentric representations remains poorly understood. Here, we used human single-neuron recordings during virtual spatial navigation tasks to identify neurons providing a neural code for egocentric spatial maps in the human brain. Consistent with previous observations in rodents, these neurons represented egocentric bearings toward reference points positioned throughout the environment. Egocentric bearing cells were abundant in the parahippocampal cortex and supported vectorial representations of egocentric space by also encoding distances toward reference points. Beyond navigation, the observed neurons showed activity increases during spatial and episodic memory recall, suggesting that egocentric bearing cells are not only relevant for navigation but also play a role in human memory.

空间导航和记忆依赖于对与外部世界或导航有机体相关的地点、距离和方向进行编码的神经系统。位置、网格和头部方向细胞构成了世界参考的、以自我为中心的认知地图的关键单元，但以自我为中心、以自我为中心的表征的神经基础仍然知之甚少。在这里，我们在虚拟空间导航任务期间使用人类单神经元记录来识别神经元，为人类大脑中的以自我为中心的空间地图提供神经代码。与之前在啮齿动物中的观察结果一致，这些神经元代表了以自我为中心的方向，朝向位于整个环境中的参考点。海马旁皮质中以自我为中心的轴承细胞丰富，并通过编码与参考点的距离来支持以自我为中心的空间的矢量表示。除了导航之外，观察到的神经元在空间和情景记忆回忆期间表现出活动增加，这表明以自我为中心的轴承细胞不仅与导航相关，而且在人类记忆中发挥作用。